Nora’s Cafe

SAD NEWS! Nora’s Café is under new management again! The food used to be so awesome. Homemade. Not like the commercialized foods of Denny’s and IHOP. I called in an order today like I do almost every weekend and my food was TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Not homemade at all. Very much like a plate you get at Denny’s. So disappointing. The new manager tried to convince me the food is better «because we use fresh ingredients «. Thumbs down on the new food at the old Nora’s Café.

This place is great! Hard to find since it is in the corner of a somewhat empty strip mall, but the space is large and very clean. Food is good. Good portions and friendly staff. Pricing is pretty standard compared to what you find at most breakfast places. I’m a huge fan of omelets and skillets, and this place delivers both of these products well.

My boyfriend and I wanted to grab breakfast on a Saturday morning and based on some positive reviews, decided to head over to Nora’s Café. We had a bit of trouble locating the actual café, as there is a sign above an empty storefront with the restaurant name, but the restaurant itself is actually caddy corner in the plaza. Had we not have gotten out of the car to walk over and check out the premises, we would have assumed the café was out of business.
Upon walking in, we were greeted immediately by a kind server who was clearing a table. She asked us to sit wherever we’d like and we chose a booth at the far end of the restaurant, near the kitchen. Nora’s café is clean and cute on the inside, with minimal décor and large pictures of breakfast food hanging above every booth. When you walk in, the name of the restaurant, in big black letters hang on the back wall above the kitchen will immediately catch your eye.
There are a few things I love about this place: I love the friendly, kind staff. I love their large menu selection. I even commented to my boyfriend that I was surprised to see «sausage gravy» on the menu as this is pretty common in the South, but I hardly see this when I visit the Midwest. I ordered a vegetable omelet + ham and opted to skip toast, and the lady kindly offered me a side of fruit instead. While we waited for our food, we could hear the server tell the chef our order in the kitchen. Our dishes came out shortly and the way they were cooked reminded me of grandma’s cooking – large portions, fresh ingredients, and very little frills. Loved it! My boyfriend commented how happy he was to find a good breakfast place close to home, and I agree – I look forward to coming back!

This place is so cute! There are so many chains around here that have the same old stuff. Im not a big breakfast person but they have these fresh homemade chips that are to die for! I wish they bagged and sold them. I also love to support the local community. The host who i suspect is owner is a kind older man. He really want you to feel like they care about you here. I will definatley be back!

Great, simply done breakfast. We had the pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and gypsy skillet. Everything was good and well made. This is a great place to go for breakfast cravings on the weekends.

Our first time here, could not ask for better hospitality and service. Although it looks like they are no longer in business they ARE they moved to the corner you should eat here it is awesome.

Great location! Good place for a quick bite to eat… American breakfast food is delicious. The food was cooked to perfection. Laid back atmosphere with friendly staff and fast service! I like that it’s a smaller establishment and I got a mom and pop feel while there.

What an awesome little find. It’s hidden away but it feels like home when you step in. It looks like a family business, they were so inviting and accommodating with the food. The skillets are a must, take your pick, they all sound good. We had the Veggie skillet which I had them throw some sausages in there, heh heh… They were very generous with the portions. The gravy was thick and great but be warned, the biscuit was incredibly rich, maybe ask them to lighten up on the amount of butter if you don’t do rich like that. All in all great place, enjoy!

A hidden gem. Great for breakfast. I had a gyro omelette yum. Really good service, nice clean atmosphere. The prices are a little high for the area but not unreasonable. I’ll go back when in the area, I was pleasantly surprised.

Very nice! Super fresh, truly made from scratch/​made to order dishes. Neat & clean & friendly. Don’t let the seemingly small strip center entrance fool you. My complete order was prepared perfectly. Eggs fried sunnyside up with no «lace» edges, brown bottoms, nor uncooked albumin. Hash browns moist AND cooked thru. Coffee was straight ahead good and the service was attentive but not rushed (my coffee cup was never more than half empty). A lot of fresh veggie featured dishes AND meat sides for us carnivores. Good unpretentious surroundings, bright & clean. If you’re in the area — by all means give them a go.

Great little mom and pop diner. Tucked in the corner of a strip mall, their sign is above a vacant business so we thought they were out of business. Really friendly wait staff, pretty good but not extraordinary breakfast food, and really fast. Do yourself a favor and get the cinnamon toast.

Totally disappointed, especially for the price, too high for such cheap ingredients. Not sure how fresh everything is, especially with how empty the place was, surely due to its inconspicuous location; it was hard to find and actually thought the place was closed down with the sign just above an empty store.
We had a Mexican Skillet and a Veggie Skillet, glad I eat meat on occasion because my veggie skillet had a piece of meat in it that I promptly spit out when I realized it wasnt a crispy hash brown. Man, glad I am not vegetarian, still bothersome wondering how it made it into my meal.
Definitely not worth the $ 9.95 price tags. The whole wheat toast looked like cheap over-​processed bread. The server was super nice but couldnt make up for the lack of quality and empty atmosphere.
The previous reviews must be from people who frequent McD’s because I cant for the life of me understand why all the stars. Sorry, I had no choice with one star, it really was that bad. We wont be back.

This is one of those charming places where the waitresses call you «hon» and the food is all about comfort.
I had poached eggs, coffee, and cinnamon banana french toast. The french toast blew my mind; I’m all about sweets, so I was all set to pour on the syrup, but after one bite, I found that I didn’t need it at all! The cinnamon bread is just mind-​boggling, and with bananas added to the top, it needs nothing more.
The portions are realistic, rather than crazy-​too-​much; take that however you will. I like having some leftovers to bring home, but at the same time, it can help a lot if you’re trying to manage how much you eat.
This is a sweet, hole-​in-​the-​wall place that you have to be looking for, but it’s worth the effort to go out and find it.

We liked this place a lot and will definitely be back. My husband and I went there early on a Sunday. We’re early risers and like to beat the breakfast crowd on the weekends, but there’s a lot of places that don’t open until 8 for breakfast, which is a bummer if you’re hungry at 7. Anyway, we were the only people there at first and the service was really great, but it didn’t diminish once it started to pick up a little bit. We had as much coffee and water as we could possibly have wanted. The food was very tasty — hearty, Midwestern breakfast style — but not the most creative I’ve ever had, which is why I reserved the last star. Also, the restaurant was very clean, nicely lit, and modern. I wish there were more places like this one in Naperville.

Great little breakfast place!
I went with some friends to switch up our routine and we were all SO happy with the decision! It’s still up and coming but the food is amazing, great service, easy to get too, can not get enough of this place.

Old school feel with a modern décor. My first time here. The coffee is delicious and hot! I ordered the Sausage and Cheese omelet and I was happy to see this was made on the griddle and not baked. Based on my first experience I like this place. Clean, friendly and good food. Looking forward to tasting more items on the menu. They also have a big blackboard with delicious daily specials. Give it a try and keep it local!

Sure, you can go to a Egg Harbor, or Butterfield’s any day and know exactly what to expect. But why do that when there are local, smaller establishments that are equally (if not more) delicious?
That’s why we stopped in: to give a local small business like Nora’s a try. Like other reviews, it’s not the easiest to find, as it is nestled in the elbow of a tiny strip mall. Once you walk in the door, any hesitation about the strip mall feel melts away. It’s a really cute, clean, and modern restaurant with a unique shape which is inviting.
Food was hot and tasty (he had a breakfast sandwich with potatoes; I had a french toast combo with sausage, bacon, eggs). It was reasonably priced (under $ 20 for the two of us plus coffee).
We were only one of 3 tables on a Friday morning at 7:30 am. Kind of bummed me out. Was hoping that this place was busier, simply for the fact that they’re new and I want small businesses to be successful and stay open.
We’ll be back.

After reading good reviews from other Unilocalers I was excited to try this place. I’ve been here before when it was Wilma’s Café and it was not good. Well not much has changed. The inside is nice and they redid the entire place. That’s a plus. They didn’t do anything with the food. I got a skillet and it was blain. I was disappointed with how bad the food was. Amanda got some breakfast item which was ok and we paid a two dollar up charge for the cinnamon raisin toast which was not good at all. Overall it was disappointing. With all the great breakfast spots in the Naperville area you need to come to play. Nora’s café is sitting on the sidelines. If I were you go elsewhere like blueberry hill, eggs inc, eggs harbor and the list goes on and on.

I was so excited to see a 5 star breakfast place nearby. I was even more excited to see that this was the old Wilma’s Café. We had been there once and the food was eh, but the décor was even worse.
The pictures show that Noras has been updated, and it looks great. We had the same great waitress from last time who is very friendly. I was also excited to see that they have daily specials. Although the the menu is simple, it’s nice to see you can get something on the menu for a special price. I went with the meat skillet, the waitress talked me into the honey bread (a specialty) for an additional $ 1.99 but she sold it so well, I thought I would give it a shot. They had 5 stars!
When the food came (after maybe 7 minutes) my boyfriend definitely got my well-​done has browns. After switching plates, I dug in. The only meat I found in this skillet was ham, and a ton of it. The cheap stuff to, not off the bone. I did see traces of some bacon but there definitely was no sign on sausage. It was topped with one piece of cheese and two eggs. I wish they would have cooked my hash browns well-​done, but overall that skillet needed more love than the potatoes. I was excited to try this specialty toast and was disappointed from the first bite. It was over toasted, hard and tiny! I couldn’t believe what I was paying $ 2 extra for.
We were debating if we wanted to come back. The food was coming out of the kitchen way too fast, and I’m highly concerned about the quality of the ingredients used here. We figured we could come back and not get a skillet, til we got the bill. In addition to the $ 2 toast that sucked, they charged $ 1 to sub cheddar cheese for mozz. The waitress failed to mention that. And since when do you have to pay to sub cheese?
There are way too many good breakfast places around to come back here. We paid $ 25 for two skillets and a cup of coffee. I can get triple the amount of food for that price at juicy-​o, with better ingredients (maybe sub par service) AND a groupon!

Just found the perfect spot to fill my need for a #shoplocal #shopsmall breakfast café by chance. It helps them being open at 6 am in my book too. With Wilma’s and Grandma Sally’s gone, this is certainly a welcome surprise to find their new fresh café at this location… and so convenient for me too.
The owners are great and they have their hearts in it… it shows. I’ve been wondering who would receive my coveted 200 Unilocal review and (drumroll please) Nora’s Café takes the prize. Looking forward to many visits in the future. How can you argue with a Chef named Tim?